1) ...when summer temperatures hit you in the face?
2)...when you have a 90 degree temperature reading outside?
3)...about meals and cooking in this heat?
Well, I decided to prepare something tasty. In my part of Texas, with the high heat and monstrous humidity arriving, I am conserving energy and minimizing my daytime outdoor activities.
During the daytime in our Central Texas summer, I cannot stand the idea of eating or drinking anything hot. I subsist on cheese, turkey pastrami and tortillas/wrappers, cold water, unsweetened iced tea, ice-cold Diet Dr. Pepper during the day and will only eat a cooked meal for dinner after 8:30pm.
Friday night I prepared a pasta salad (pasta, onions, garlic, grape tomatoes, shoe-string carrots, mushroom slices, & baby spinach leaves...topped with bacon bits, shredded cheddar and garlic croutons). and ate it with 2 Tbsp of Kraft Italian Salad Dressing. It was so good that I didn't miss having meat on my plate. I still crave fried chicken, barbecue ribs and cheeseburgers, but I just don't partake very often.
Because of my gastric problems (100% colectomy with J-pouch in 2005) I cannot stand anything that produces gas. I absolutely love onions, cabbage, beans, lettuce and a few other foods but my digestive tract does not. To bypass problems, I used spinach leaves instead of lettuce and cooked my onions and garlic with the pasta. I "popped" the Diet Dr. Pepper can and stored it in the refrigerator 4 hours before drinking in order to release the carbonation/gas. This all made for a rather "bland" pasta salad, but that is the way my digestive tract wants it. I have learned over the last 7 years to always strive to keep my digestive tract happy. Not doing so usually results in stomach cramps and/or other digestive discomforts that last for days.
What will I cook tonight? Probably nothing. More than likely, I will eat more of this deliciously bland pasta salad. It will be thoroughly chilled and the flavors, seasonings, ingredients, etc. will be blended more, making the salad more flavorful.
Bon appetit!